3 Ways to Improve Public Relations Performance in Lean Times

Eric Schwartzman

The coronavirus pandemic will forever change how information workers collaborate.

While we’re all working separately from home, our fate as a species has never been more connected.

What’s the use of taking extreme measures and imposing a lock down to flatten the curve in one country if a neighboring country does nothing?

There’s only one curve to flatten and it’s global. Humanity is in this one together.

Global supply chains, which rely on vendors in third world countries that lack the infrastructure to adequately suppress or treat the coronavirus pandemic, are interdependent too.

For the first time, we’re seeing the shortcomings of choosing suppliers based solely on price, rather than resiliency, according to Robbie Vann-Adibe, one of the smartest guys I know.

And as CFOs look for creative ways to grapple with an economic free fall, this could be the end of the office as we know it, he said.

More and more workers had already been telecommuting. Expect to see organizations take a hard look at their real estate leasing costs, now that receiveables are frozen everyone’s already made the work-from-home shift.

If you think about how a remote workforce collaborates, you can start to see other obvious cost savings too.

Unless you’re selling to a global consumer market, the benefits outsourcing full life cycle strategic communications to a public relations agency get a whole lot hazier.

Expect to see hybrid staffing models — where clients outsource program guidance and leadership and keep tactical execution in house — to grow in popularity, like this:

When the physical work space is gone, having a well rounded team of experts on payroll — particularly when senior counsel can be outsourced — lacks the fiscal prudence this environment demands.

I’m already seeing increased demand for my Inside Out PR program and would not be surprised to see other senior-level public relations practitioners introduce similar offerings.